no GH and KH (how to add minteral and KH)

[leechiahan]

hi
any way to add both KH and GH up without to spend a lot of money ?
currently using KENT RO(they are too expensive since I change 30% of my 77g water everyday)
any recipe?
my tap water have 0 KH and 0 GH

Henry

[gump]

Hey Henery, Join the club. What is your PH coming out of the tap? and what does it do over time?
There are a couple of recipies kicking around based on equal parts epsom salt, calcium chloride, and rock salt, and monitor amount to get it where you want.

I have the same problem.. GH & KH essentially=0 and PH of 5.8 out of my tap. I started the same way you did..$$$$$ to get water where you want it. Now I store water for 24 hours with a bag of crushed coral hanging in my storage tank. I also use abag with a mixture of crushed oyster shell & coral in my aquaclears. This keeps my tanks very stable with a PH of 6.8.
HTH
Pierre

[April]

hi. i gave you the recipe already didnt I?
i just went to the store....and got lime. it has calcium chloride and magnesium chloride. gonna try it.
or.......heres a link of what Jason uses. which not sure we have that brand around..maybe try the grocery stores.
http://www.windsorsalt.com/deicing/roadrunner.htm dont use any with additives. i was at home depot today and they had one with blue added and urea.

but....you really have to watch your ph.
and id add it to a storage bucket.
kent ro is easier.....and its at king ed in a big jar for about

35.00. should last a long time with one tank.

if jasons around..he may be able to add to this.

[April]

hi Gump. yes your water and ours is similar.
Henry lives by me.

[gump]

Hi April.
Yes Henry your in good hands with April on you side!!! April walked me through this same problem just over a year ago!! LOL
Pierre

[April]

And i in turn learnt all this from Jason..right jason? still learning. lol.

[Jason]

I havent been using the roadrunner stuff for very long I just noticed on the bag it had the chemicals I wanted.

before that I was using Sifto pickeling lime as a source of calcium, and a enviromentaly friendly de-icer with was pure magnesium chloride, to that iI just added a bit of salt in a 2:1:1 ratio, you want your conductivity to be about 300us for good growth on fish under 4"

you water in Vancouver is a little softer than mine so you may need to add baking soda to help buffer it a bit.

I failed chemistry in high school so I cant tell you how or why it works, but it does and I've been doing it for years. good luck

[leechiahan]

HI
where can you get your oyster shell & coral from
can we get it at the local beach around us ? and sanitize it?
or we buy it in the store?
Henry

[jeep]

here's some more info if interested

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//index.php?board=5;action=display;threadid=7285

[April]

King Ed .....has it Henry..
not the beach. they have to be specially steralized.
you can get it by the pound.

[leechiahan]

thanks everyone...
^_^
any one know are free to post..
Henry

[Jason]

go to the home depot and get "southdown" playground sand, its pure clean aragonite and will disolve alot better than coral pieces or oyester shell, 19.99 for a 40lb bag